Stories and advice from Bernadette Smith, visionary owner of 14 Stories, the nation's first firm specializing in creating legal LGBT weddings. Our weddings are unique, personal, beautiful and still, historical. We have offices in Boston and New York.
We (and two of our clients/former clients) are in the New York Times about the wardrobe options for lesbian brides.
It's a great piece which offers insight into the unique challenges that our clients face. Check it out!
Sometimes we hear from same-sex couples who want to have more than 20 guests but don't want to fuss with fully custom planning, despite wanting a beautiful, luxurious New York wedding experience. For them, we are offering a new service, the Destiny Maxi package!
The Destiny Maxi is a semi-custom wedding planning package for up to 50 guests. Top-notch photography, flowers (including centerpieces), wedding cake, an officiant and a private indoor ceremony space are all included. You even get options to personalize when it comes to flowers and cake. Simply choose the option that makes sense for you, add food and beverage costs and we'll do the rest.
All you have to do is invite your guests and show up! Wedding planning doesn't get any easier than this.
The Destiny Maxi can be booked online today through this link!
I was so excited to get the beautiful photos of Fred and Dean's wedding at Boston's ICA, taken by Avenna Studios. I put them in our portfolio but wanted to share a few on the blog as well!
Yesterday, the Proposition 1 ballot initiative passed in North Carolina. I can honestly say that I was in tears. Our company has worked with dozens of couples from North Carolina over the years, including one of our 5/15/12 weddings and one of our 5/19/12 weddings. Two couples this month, from (yet another) state which treats them as second-class citizens.
The passage of this proposition forbids those kind, loving couples from equal marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships and every other "family" construct. The way the amendment was written was truly horrifying.
I honestly try to focus this blog on the "how to..." elements of wedding planning, but the truth is that 14 Stories is an activist-type company. We care about the laws. We only plan legal weddings. We provide every couple we meet with a list of resources that can help them protect their families. The reality is, for LGBT couples, marriage is not enough.
14 Stories is paid to plan beautiful weddings, and I love that. But we have gone through the process of planning our own wedding, having some family support and some not, having to hire a lawyer for all this extra paperwork, the same stuff that every LGBT couple must face. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of what makes LGBT weddings different.
I love working with couples who give a damn, LGBT couples for whom this stuff is important, who don't take equal marriage rights for granted and who want to make some slight political statement with their marriage ceremony (and if you don't know how, we have ideas...)
Even if you live in a big city (like we do) with many LGBT friends (like we have), please don't take whatever rights you have for granted. We have to keep fighting because, in most of the world, our LGBT brothers and sisters have no rights. Even in states like California and Florida with "gay mecca" cities, LGBT couples have very limited rights.
Your marriage and wedding is important, of course, but please, above all, protect your family. Please contact us if you need resources in your area for financial planners, estate planning attorneys, insurance agents and other professionals who can help protect your family.
And please, along with us, keep up the good fight. It's not just about the wedding.
We are working on a pretty major project that is still under wraps - but trust me when I say that when we announce it, you will find out about it all over the place!
As part of this project, we are looking for women in South Florida who are willing to model for us (with compensation).
To be considered, we are looking for these body types:
If any of the above describes you, please email us and I'll give you the specifics - thank you!
I am preparing my speech for this Saturday's Celebrant USA Conference. I am honored to deliver the keynote address. In preparing, I came across this video from the Golden Girls, circa 1991. The Golden Girls was my late (and very Irish-Catholic) mom's favorite show...wonder what she thought of this episode... Check out this great clip below!
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I was sitting with clients last week and we were talking about the flow of their gay wedding in Boston. I have this four page questionnaire I go through a few months before the wedding with our big wedding clients. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Are you having a first dance?
All of these are fairly common answers when we're planning a gay wedding, though. After all, those are traditional elements and many of our clients love the opportunity to be non-traditional and reinvent what weddings should look like! And you completely have permission to do so!
The problem with those answers is that when we take out so many things, there is a lot of dead space and time. The guests get bored and heaven forbid, the wedding ends early. I believe it's very important to add things back in that are conversation starts and memory makers...
Here are some examples that we've experienced, have recommended or are recommending:
The experience doesn't have to detract from the wedding or all the time spent dancing. If it's a performance, keep it short, 1-2 songs MAX and keep it upbeat and appropriate.
What are you doing to add some conversation starters and entertainment to your wedding?
Fire Island, New York is a pretty special place and a truly beautiful destination for a wedding. The Pines is predominantly a gay destination while Cherry Grove next door attracts the lesbians.
I really want to give a shout-out to the fabulous Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, in lower Manhattan. This property is certainly gorgeous, with views of the Hudson and Lady Liberty. But beyond that, I am consistently blown away by their impeccable service. It really is a great spot for a fabulous and quintessential New York gay wedding, large or small.
Washington State became the seventh U.S. state (plus D.C.) to legalize gay marriage on Monday when Governor Gregoire signed the marriage equality bill into law. This is very exciting but you may want to hold off on your gay wedding plans for a little bit longer. Opponents of marriage equality still may try to stop it from going into effect on June 7 - so the matter is not yet settled - but this is a huge step forward. Congratulations!
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